Very Nice, Very Nice

This is the story of a king and his Prime Minister. The King was a very noble, generous, efficient and progressive king. His Prime Minister was also very intelligent, diplomatic, aware of his duties and very faithful to the king.

But the Prime Minister had one annoying habit….he used to say “Very nice, very nice” to anything that would happen whether good or bad..

One time the king was ill and could not go to battle. The Prime Minister came to visit and said to the King “Very nice, very nice’. The king was annoyed.

Once the king decided that he would like to see the progress in his kingdom and how the common people were living there. So he made a plan to disguise himself as a commoner and visit the villages in the kingdom. The king and the Prime Minister both disguised themselves and started on the tour with a few guards following from some distance back. After a while the guards were too far back and they got separated from the king and the pm. When the king noticed this, he informed the Prime Minister who replied of course by saying “Very nice very nice”. This really annoyed the king so he said to the pm “I am getting tired of this habit, please stop!”

They began to loose their way as they were searching for the guards and it was beginning to get dark. In a rocky section of the path, the horse that the king was riding slipped and broke its leg and had to be abandoned. The Prime Minister again said “Very nice very nice”. This time the king got very angry and told the Prime Minister to give him his horse then he got on it and started to ride telling the Prime Minister to follow him on foot. The Prime Minister again said “Very nice very nice”.

It began to get darker and darker and after some time the king along with the horse fell into a trap meant for catching prey. During the fall into the pit, the king broke his leg and this horse was also injured. The Prime Minister again replied “Very nice very nice”. This time the king was enraged and yelled at the Prime Minister to get him out of the pit immediately. The Prime Minister helped the king out with the help of a tree branch but when the king came up, he was still so angry that he pushed the Prime Minister into the pit and said to him angrily “Very nice very nice” and hobbled away with the help of a stick.

He limped off too angry and frustrated to think about where he was going. It wasn’t long before he encountered a tribe who captured him by force with the help of their weapons.
The king tried to explain to the people that he was their king but hey just laughed at him.

Took dragged him to their village and tied him to a tree. By listening to what they were saying, the King realized that he was to be sacrificed the next morning as an offering in a tribal ritual!

During the nigh the king felt so much remorse to think about how he treated his Prime Minister and he regretted his decision to leave his palace and go on this trip.

The next morning the king was taken to place of sacrifice and the head priest came with a very sharp knife in his hand…the king was very scared. But then the priest began to look over the king’s body very carefully and after a careful inspection, the priest abruptly turned away from the king. He declared the king unfit for sacrifice and the king was released

The king was relieved but also curious as to why he was not sacrificed so he asked the priest and was surprised to realize that because of his broken leg he was not considered a complete/whole offering and as was required for the ritual!

The king was Happy so he rushed back to the place where the pm was still inside the pit and helped him get out. Then the king told the Prime Minister the whole story of his night, and how sorry he was for pushing him into the pit. Then the Prime Minister said oh my dear king, now I will explain to you why I said that everything was very nice even though you thought it wasn’t

“The decision you made to visit your kingdom was very nice because now you know that there are some horrific rituals that are still happening here. If we would not have lost the guards you would not have come to know about it. Also when your horse got injured and you took mine and made me walk it was very nice because if I had been on the horse with you we both would have fallen into the pit and no one would have been there to help us out. It was very nice that you broke your leg because if you had not broken your leg you would have been sacrificed and you would not be here talking to me now!”

The king agreed and realized how right the pm had been all along.

The king then asked “But there is one more thing, when I pushed you into the pit why then did you say very nice very nice? To this the pm responded because if you had not pushed me in, I would have been with you when the villagers caught you and because I do not have any broken parts, I would have been the one sacrificed. SO it is because you pushed me that I am here talking to you now!